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THE VESTRY,
as now constituted under the Metropolis Local Management
Act, 1855, consists of 48 elected and three ex-officio
members, the latter being the Rector and Churchwardens.
It superseded a Vestry elected under the provisions of a
permissive statute, 1 & 2 William IV., cap. 60, which was
adopted by the ratepayers of St. James's on the 6th April,
1832. This elected Vestry had, in its turn, superseded a
select Vestry established by the Act under which the Parish
was created in 1685. The select Vestry was virtually a
self-appointed body, vacancies being filled up by the surviving
members.
Neither the ancient select Vestry nor the Vestry elected
under the statute of 1831 had any jurisdiction over the
paving or drainage of the Parish. Each of these matters
was under the control of a separate and distinct body of
Commissioners. The Act of 1855 transferred to the Vestry
as now constituted, not only all the powers of the earlier
Vestry, but also those relating to paving, drainage, and
lighting formerly exercised by these Commissioners. Subsequent
legislation has laid upon the Vestry various
additional duties, and in many respects, the powers of the
Vestry within the area of its jurisdiction resemble those of
the Town Council of a corporate town, with the addition of
rating powers, although as regards the police force, the
provision of markets, and the supply of gas and water, not
this Parish alone, but the metropolis at large, stands on a
different footing from provincial towns of comparatively
minor importance.
The following pages will show the diversity of subjects
coming within the purview of the Vestry, but it may be